Microsoft released the Visual C++ feature
pack,
which brings an updated MFC and -- the best part -- TR1 support to C++!
No more looking for std::tr1::shared_ptr or std::tr1::unordered_set.
Woho! Only problem is the installation currently fails if you are using
a non-english Windows, the workaround is quite simple though: Go to the
language options and set the format to English, and the location to USA.
No need to change the UI language itself (on Vista).

Well, the semester break is nearly now, time to look back at the last
half year. I tried and used quite a few new things this time (Tried and
used means usually I wrote something non-trivial with it. After all, the
following list is the sum of 6 months of programming ;) ):

Ported a fairly large project over to CMake (from MSVC++). Took me
quite some time, but I became pretty familiar with CMake
in exchange. The build process included lots of dependencies, pre- &
post-build steps and various custom configuration points and didn't
work until 2.6 beta due to a bug in 2.4.8. Looking forward to use it
in the future for more projects.

Some parallel programming with OpenMP and profiling with Intel
VTune/Thread Profiler. Worked quite well actually, included
reworking an algorithm for better scalability and implementing it.

Lots of Java programming: Wrote a compiler with it (from scratch)
and some smaller side projects. It's not as bad as it used to be
(last time I used Java was around 1.2), but I fear I won't love it
anytime soon ... except for the top-notch refactoring capabilities
of Eclipse/Netbeans.

DirectX9, programming and debugging with PiX. Basically, the last
several months I've been using DX9 and I must admit it's a pretty
comfortable development environment (at least, compared to OpenGL --
PiX' "debug this pixel" is just great).

Boost -- I've learned how to get Boost running from SVN directly
(during the time VC9 was not supported officially) and I had a
chance to take a look at the new thread stuff. The latter is pretty
interesting as it's the same that will be part of C++0x, the earlier
you take a look at it the better.

[Update] Yeah, I know, the about page does not reflect
this -- I gotta update it some day, but I doubt I can ever keep it
really up-to-date. Also note that this list is not really complete.

Rewritten
Boost.Thread
to closely match the C++0x Thread library, and with
native_handle () support. Works great, I already ported a project
to it, so far no problems. Includes also synchronisation primitives
like conditions.